Everloop is a great alternative to Facebook for kids in the 8-13 range who want to socialize online while still being safe.

Every time I see one of my friends’ kids join Facebook, I cringe a little. Oftentimes, these children are under Facebook’s required age (13 years), but even a young teen often doesn’t use much discretion when posting online. Okay, let’s be honest. Many adults don’t use discretion when posting online either! The fact of the matter is that Facebook isn’t a great place for kids unless you’re watching over their shoulder every time they are online, which is pretty unrealistic for most parents.

Yet, socializing online can build some great skills and allow your child to interact with people from around the world. It isn’t all bad. Everloop is a safer place to do this. So if your tweens are bugging you about joining Facebook, and you’re worried they just aren’t ready for Facebook yet, check out this online community as an alternative.

Everloop is a social network designed specifically for the 8-13 crowd, but can also be enjoyed by slightly older children as well. The site is COPPA compliant and strictly monitors what its members are publishing to keep kids safe and prevent any kind of online bullying. Even though I suggest you enjoy online activities with your child, on Everloop they are safer even if your back is turned for a minute.

This network is built on the idea of “loops” which are similar to Facebook groups. Each loop is about a specific topic and kids can join loops according to their interests. Loops cover everything from sports to movies to hobbies, and if there’s not a loop for your child’s interests, he or she can start one. Kids can also chat with one another, play games, share pictures, and more on Everloop, and parents can control exactly who sees the information being shared. Profiles on Everloop are also more kid-friendly and can be customized with colors, badges, stickers, and more.

Everloop has won a number of awards, including a 2012 Parents’ Choice Award for “Best Website for Kids Ages 8-13” and CEO Hilary DeCesare has spoken at The White House Conference on Bullying Prevention. If you’re looking for a safe place for your kids to connect with others online, this is definitely a social network you need to check out.

Allison Boyer is the Online Education Coordinator and Content Creator for New Media Expo (NMX), a conference for bloggers, podcasters, web TV producers, and social business leaders. She also runs the food blog The PinterTest Kitchen with her mom and sister.

A new app called Locket allows you to earn money by displaying ads on your smartphone’s lock screen.

Ads are annoying, but would you voluntarily look at them if someone paid you to do so? One app developer is asking that question. Earlier this month, Locket launched on Android, and this new app will pay you to look at ads on your phone’s lock screen.

Locket was founded by Yunha Kim, Paul Jang, and Christopher Crawford after Kim realized just how often she looks at her phone. Every time you pick up your phone during the day, you have to unlock it, so this “unlock” screen is valuable real estate. And Kim isn’t the only one who thinks so. According to TechCrunch, the startup received $500,000 in funding from Great Oaks VC just three days after giving their pitch–their first pitch ever.

Putting Locket on your phone is a similar experience to the Kindle device lock screen ads. Instead of a wallpaper, you’ll see interactive ads for movies, brands, etc. If the ad interests you, you can swipe one direction to watch a trailer, go to the Facebook page, receive a coupon, or go to a website, for example. If not, swipe the other direction to get into your phone like normal.

Regardless of whether you click through (or, more accurate, swipe through), you are paid 1 cent for every swipe, capped at 3 cents per hour right now. The ads you see are based on a brief questionnaire you fill out upon downloading the app (which you can complete using Facebook if you want to link the two), as well as your other app use, and your engagement with the ads you see. So, you’ll see targeted ads that actually fit your interests.

What I really like about Locket is that the company is committed to growth without compromising the integrity of the app. They currently have 8 advertisers on board, and are expected to add another 2 soon. However, they’ve already turned down ads from companies selling lingerie, alcohol, and other brands that aren’t family-friendly. This means you don’t have to worry about your kids grabbing your phone and seeing something inappropriate on the lock screen or something embarrassing popping up while your phone is on the table during a business meeting.

The money you’ll earn isn’t great. Even if you never sleep, the maximum you can earn is around $5 per week. However, as more advertisers jump on board, that number could rise. And if you’re looking at your phone so often anyway, why not let it buy you coffee once a week?

Allison Boyer is the Online Education Coordinator for New Media Expo (NMX), where you can learn more about blogging, podcasting, web TV, and social business. She also runs the food blog The PinterTest Kitchen with her mom and sister.

Get to know your neighbors! Nextdoor is a new way to create your very own private social network for your local community.

One of the things I love about my current neighborhood is that I know my neighbors. The area where I live is up-and-coming, but not without its problems. I like knowing that I can rely on the people who live in the houses near mine to call me if they see anything weird going on, especially when they know I’m not at home.

Now, connecting with your neighbors is a whole lot easier with a new social network called Nextdoor. If you’re interested in supporting your community and building a safer place to live, this is a tool you need to check out! It’s a safe way to meet your neighbors in a private online setting so you can support one another and better enjoy the area where you live.

Nextdoor allows you to:

Send out alerts to everyone in your community if you see something suspicious

Organize community clean-ups

Communicate about lost pets and other items

Warn others about roadwork in your area

Find people to mow your lawn, babysit, and more

Learn about neighborhood events

Sell or trade items

Get recommendations for local services

In addition, if you’re the first in your community to sign up for Nextdoor, you can invite others via email or printed postcards/fliers and welcome new members of the community. Currently, this app is being used by over 12,000 neighborhoods across the United States.

I like that each neighborhood has its own private online network within Nextdoor and members need to be verified that they do live in the community so it isn’t a free-for-all where everyone can see what’s going on.

However, although I love some of the people living on my street, I don’t necessarily trust everyone in my entire neighborhood. I don’t want to advertise, for example, that I’m looking for a petsitter, because it tells others that I’m going out of town. Depending on what your neighborhood is like, you might even want to be careful about the suspicious activities you report, as people could lash out against you.

There are some great features, though, and I especially like the sense of community an app like Nextdoor gives to a neighborhood where people might otherwise never get to know one another. That’s what my last neighborhood was like. It was a nice enough area and I always felt safe, but people didn’t really know one another. I guess, like with everything you post online, the key is to be safe and when in doubt, say things to your neighbors in person once you trust them instead of posting it online. Even if the whole world can’t see it, the whole neighborhood can.

Nextdoor is available for iPhone and iPad, and you can also sign up and log online via your favorite web browser if you don’t have any i-devices.

Allison Boyer is the Online Education Coordinator and Content Creator for New Media Expo (NMX), a conference for bloggers, podcasters, web TV producers, and social business leaders. She also runs the food blog The PinterTest Kitchen with her mom and sister.

Skydog is a new router and moblie app from PowerCloud Systems that allows you to see who is using the Internet and how. By using the mobile app, you can set up an alerts system, which is perfect for parents who want to ensure that their kids aren’t spending too much time online. Skydog can also help you analyze Internet performance so you can better handle problems as they arise.

Here are just a few of the things you can do with Skydog:

Set time limits for social media, gaming, and other activies

Block content that is inappropriate for your kids

Schedule time for educational Internet use and time for entertainment use

Optimize performance for gaming

View the sites your kids are visiting

Receive alerts if someone new connects to your Internet

You can set up Skydog so it doesn’t just alert you, but it can also alert other members of your family as well. So, if your child hits his or her gaming limit, you can have Skydog send them a warning to stop playing on Facebook and start studying.

Because lots of kids, especially teens, now have their own smartphones and tablets, it’s nice to see exactly what sites they’re surfing when you might otherwise not even know they are connected to the Internet. Exactly what is your 15-year-old looking at from his iPhone at 2 AM?

I like the idea of Skydog from a security standpoint as well. Because you can see exactly who is connected to your Internet, it’s easy to see if there are any unauthorized users and give them the boot.

Also, I find it pretty great that you can optimize your Internet for the most important activities. I work from home and it can be frustrating if someone else is watching a movie on Netflix while I’m trying to upload something for work and I’m slowed down. With Skydog, I can schedule time when the Internet is optimized for me, so I can get work done faster even if others are also connected. The Skydog community is also a great place to ask questions if you’re a not familiar with optimizing your Internet.

Skydog was successfully funded in mid-May via Kickstarter and will be available later this year. Will you be looking into this option for your home?

Allison Boyer is the Online Education Coordinator for NMX University, where you can learn more about blogging, podcasting, web TV, and social business. She also runs the food blog The PinterTest Kitchen with her mom and sister.

FixMeUp is a new dating/matchmaking application for Facebook that utilizes the connections and the relationships that you already have to help you make the new ones that you want.

By now, you or someone you know has tried an online dating service – and let’s all be honest, it’s a pretty strange scene. From being propositioned by strangers behind murky images to trying in vain to pull off a three-line text-message pick-up, the online dating market has been in chaos, with more disappointments and failures than successes. Many of these sites boil dating down to a virtual people auction that often leaves users feeling vulnerable, confused, and disconnected – and a little more lonely than when they started.

But now, there’s a new option: FixMeUp, a dating/matchmaking application for Facebook! Everyone loves to try to set their friends up, and who better to help you pick your next date than a mutual friend? FixMeUp utilizes the connections and the relationships that you already have to help you make the new ones that you want.

There’s been a lot of talk about the power of Facebook’s “Second Circle of Friends,” which has been used successfully by advertisers and other professional networks. FixMeUp proposes, “Why not use these circles for a truly worthwhile cause, like finding love?”

FixMeUp’s solution, just like in real life, is to get people together through matchmakers – and who better for this role than your friends who actually know you? Inside the application, the user is invited to choose if he or she wants to be a “Dater”, a “Cupid” (i.e. a matchmaker), or both. From this moment on, the games begin. Through FixMeUp, the search for love online can be social and entertaining, while keeping the search honest and real so that you can find something real. A proposed match can come from either the Daters themselves or from the Cupids. If you want to be set up with someone, you just need a mutual friend, and, as you probably know from experience, this makes your chances of success much, much higher.

There is even a bit of an incentive system in place. The more people that you fix up as a Cupid, the better your reputation and you’ll gain recognition for being a great Cupid and a good friend.

As a Dater in FixMeUp you get the opportunity to get to know your friends’ friends by browsing through your “Second Circle of Friends” on Facebook. That way: (1) you already have a friend in common, (2) you can ask your friend to make the introduction and recommend you, and (3) you’re both vetted! No more spinning roulette with “sick-o’s”, “weird-o’s” or “lame-o’s” – unless, you know… you’re into that sort of thing (no judgements, just leave a comment below and I’ll friend you on Facebook )

And be sure to get the app via Facebook here: FixMeUp App - and fix up your next date today!

Andrew Garde Joia is a freelance writer, business consultant, and web design professional. Actively involved in the New York Startup Technology scene, he is a regular volunteer with Ultralight Startups NYC and is the Managing Director for Customer Relations at Bedphones – The Headphones Designed for Sleep. To find out more about Andrew, visit his About.Me.

Finding the best content to share via social media can be a real time-suck. Swayy is a brand new platform you can use to save a little time in finding awesome content and sharing it with your followers on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This is a great app to test out if you’re looking for an easy content sharing solution.

Swayy allows you to choose one to five topics that are of interest to you and your social followers. It also analyzes your audience and the links you’re already sharing to see the most popular sources, the types of content you’re sharing (blog posts, videos, etc.), and your trending keywords. From there, the platform recommends content for you to share.

When I signed up, I selected topics like social media and food, and the content that was recommended came from Forbes, The Next Web, Food Navigator, Copyblogger, Makezine, and a wide variety of other sources. You can click on any of the recommendations to read the content or simply click the “share” button to send out the link via Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

I love the sharing options Swayy gives users, especially for Twitter. You have complete control to edit the text before sending it out to your followers, and for Twitter specially, the platform recommends hashtags that are related to the content. Swayy also recommends people you should mention in your tweet, like the author of the original post. When you mention someone in your tweet, they are more likely to follow you, so this is a great featuring if you’re interested in building your own following.

In using Swayy, I’ve found that this is not only a great way to share content with your followers, but it’s also a great way to find new content to read for yourself. Swayy’s recommendations include many of my favorite blogs and news sources, but I’ve also found some brand new sites by using this platform. Sometimes, we can get a little stuck in our own feed readers, so this is a great way to break out of the monotony and discover new content.

As an additional benefit, Swayy also shows some simple stats about the content you’ve shared so you can see how engaged your audience really is with the links you’re sharing. For each piece of content you share through Swayy, you can see how many people clicked the link and whether or not they’re resharing the content with their own audiences.

There are some features that seem to be missing on Swayy, but the platform is currently still in beta, so it will be interesting to see how it continues to evolve. I’d love to see integration with Pinterest and Google+. I’ve noticed that the recommended content is primarily blog posts/news, and I’d love to see them mix in some video content as well, directly from YouTube, Vimeo, and other video sites. I’d also like a way to submit my own blogs and other blogs I love, as this could be a great way to get new traffic, as well as “blacklist” content from sites that I don’t want to share. Right now, you can currently delete recommendations that don’t interest you, but this does remove entire sites, so you no longer see future content as far as I can tell.

I met the people behind Swayy while on a technology delegation to Israel when they showcased their browser extension, Summer, which allows you to easily research people while you’re reading content online. It’s on this tour that I also met Renee, so this post about Swayy on SheBytes is bringing us full circle! I was very impressed with Summer and am looking forward to seeing how Swayy develops as well.

Allison Boyer is the Online Education Coordinator for NMX University, where you can learn more about blogging, podcasting, web TV, and social business. She also runs the food blog The PinterTest Kitchen with her mom and sister.

]]>http://www.shebytes.com/2013/04/15/easy-content-sharing-on-social-media-with-swayy/feed/0Facebook Introduces Home, a New Way to Use Your Phonehttp://www.shebytes.com/2013/04/08/facebook-introduces-a-new-way-to-use-your-phone-with-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=facebook-introduces-a-new-way-to-use-your-phone-with-home
http://www.shebytes.com/2013/04/08/facebook-introduces-a-new-way-to-use-your-phone-with-home/#commentsMon, 08 Apr 2013 19:59:11 +0000http://www.shebytes.com/?p=11224

Facebook announced Friday at its Menlo Park headquarters plans for its new “skin” software designed to put Facebook front and center on any Android device.

The journalists gathered Friday for a Zuckerberg led press conference to get the first look at Facebook’s new heavily hyped app Home on Android – the long-rumored Facebook Phone. While most of the tech crowd was expecting an actual device in of itself built from the ground up to feature the social networking giant. The social media giant had other plans up its sleeve.

Facebook finally made a public statement about their plans for the Facebook phone. But that phone, the HTC First, is really just a reference model for the best integration of the Facebook Home software that can be downloaded onto any modern Android phone starting April 12.

Facebook Home consists of a few key capabilities designed to put people, not apps, first. He compared the change to adding Newsfeed to Facebook’s website, where people started consuming twice as much content overnight. Home brings this experience right to your phone, and delivers it to as many people as possible.

The new App, currently only compatible for Android phones, features three key components: Cover Feed, Chat Heads and Notifications.

The Cover Feed will replace the home and/or lock screen of an Android device giving users an immersive experience from the moment they turn on your phone. Instead of seeing a clock and maybe a snippet of a notification, you see your Facebook Open Graph stories with large images cycling across the screen. News shares and status updates are visible right from the start. Users can even add comments right from the home screen.

The little round bubbles with images of your friends, Chat Heads, are the metaphor for Facebook Home’s way of keeping users up to date on what friends are saying. Incorporating Facebook messaging and texting, users simply tap on the Head to join the conversation. The key here is that Chat Heads show up everywhere on the phone, not just in a dedicated app. They’re always available – the little Heads show up in the corner of the screen no matter what else you’re doing.

Notifications are there to make sure users don’t miss critical information – along with the name and face of the person who’s sending the message. Unfortunately, with the download version at least, Facebook Home will not support notifications of emails, but you can still use the native Android notification bar.

Finally, Facebook Home will add a new app launcher, for when users still want to use the phone’s old-fashioned features. Apps are really important too, so Facebook has made it just as easy to access apps. The app launcher is just one swipe away from the home or lock screen. Many, but not all, of these features can be switched on or off.

While Facebook home is not a complete mobile operating system, it’s not some lightweight app, either. That’s critical, because people spend a lot of time on Facebook on their mobile phones. Some 20% of the time people spend on their smartphones is spent with Facebook – 25% if you include Instragram. And that’s three times as much as with any other app.

Still, while Zuckerberg claimed that people look at Facebook 10-12 times a day, they look at the home screen of their phone 100 times a day. Facebook Home brings the social network much closer to the user – and could be expected to seriously up Facebook’s engagement time for those who use it.

Facebook Home will be available for free download from the Google Play store on April 12, but that’s only part of the story. Facebook Home is also on HTC First, available the same day for $99.99 exclusively from AT&T, with pre-orders starting today.

Twitter has become so immensely popular that world leaders on Twitter account for 75% of them globally. It’s no wonder Twitter is on its way to IPO.

In 2011 the world came to truly understand the revolutionary impact of social media. As a result of the movement in Middle East, images were distributed through Twitter, Facebook and other mainstream social media networks, which served as a catalyst to an already disturbed situation. There was no denying the unrest; so much so that social scientists and media experts credited social media for rallying people together around a cause: peace.

Learning from the situation in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, politicians have begun using social media to connect with people, Twitter in particular. The Digital Policy Council found in a recent survey that world leaders on Twitter have jumped up from 20% in 2010 to 75% in 2012. Some of them use a personal handle, like Barack Obama, while other use official handles to Tweet. The survey also revealed the popularity (by follower) for each world leader present on Twitter. Barack Obama, for example, is the most popular among world leaders on Twitter with 25 million followers. He is also among the top 10 most followed people on Twitter. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is the second most popular world leader on Twitter, with roughly 3 million followers.

Twitter launched back in 2006 and became an instant hit with its unique interface and ease of use. Since it is a no brainer to use the network, everyone welcomed it (all you have to do, after all, is type a 140 character update, whenever and wherever you feel like it). As of 2011, the service had over 300 million users across the world. Today, users can share photos, videos, and anything else that remains within 140 characters in length.

With so many world leaders on Twitter, the growth of social media is undeniable. This would explain why Twitter is on its way to IPO, having recently renamed the titles of its key executives for that very reason. And not just that, Twitter has more excitement on the horizon, with its new TV rating system to be launched, a combined venture of Twitter and Nielson. More on Twitter to follow…

]]>http://www.shebytes.com/2013/01/13/world-leaders-on-twitter/feed/0FamilyLeaf: A Private Social Network for Keepin’ it in the Famhttp://www.shebytes.com/2013/01/03/familyleaf-app-a-private-social-network-for-keepin-it-in-the-fam/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=familyleaf-app-a-private-social-network-for-keepin-it-in-the-fam
http://www.shebytes.com/2013/01/03/familyleaf-app-a-private-social-network-for-keepin-it-in-the-fam/#commentsThu, 03 Jan 2013 06:30:48 +0000http://www.shebytes.com/?p=10695

The FamilyLeaf app is a new, intimate social network, allowing you to keep it all in the Family. Setup family ‘branches’ and truly (and openly) share your life with those you trust and love the most.

The 21st century has quickly become the century of social media and social networking. People of all ages are now constantly connected, from any and everywhere. Whether it’s using a computer, phone, iPad or tablet, even television, people use social media networks to share their lives with one another. But who are we really sharing with?

According to a recent study by Pew, a whopping 30% on average of peoples’ Facebook friends are practically strangers (friends of friends, dormant ties, other miscellaneous unclassifiables). Further, with difficult to manage and often shaky privacy settings, there’s no telling who we’re keeping informed with our pictures and videos, thoughts, even personal information. The same study found that the main reason people report using social networking is to connect with family, yet only 20% on average of peoples’ Facebook friends actually are family. Something just doesn’t add up!

In deed, there’s a lot of information we’d like to share with family, but not all of our other so-called “friends,” and vice versa. We end up spending so much time connected, but often holding back from truly sharing, openly, with the ones most important to us.

Now there’s finally a solution: FamilyLeaf, a new concept in social networking which allows you to keep it all in the fam. Whether it’s posting photos and videos of baby’s first steps, sharing a “tidbit” from your day, Grandma posting her famous peach cobbler recipe, or even just starting an open conversation about holiday plans, the FamilyLeaf app is a private place to share your life with your family.

Some features of the FamilyLeaf app include:

Photo and video sharing; can be posted from your computer, imported from services like Facebook and Flickr, or even through sending an email to your family’s personalized FamilyLeaf email address. When posted to FamilyLeaf, your family has instant online access (a unified family photo album!). Pictures and videos can be tagged, commented on, or even “loved.”

Chat / conversations; once an account is created and you’ve added family members to a family branch, you can start communicating on the conversation board. It’s great for sharing recent information, making get-together plans, even just reminiscing. Say goodbye to email chains and mass texting!

Store contact info; family members can easily add and update respective contact information (addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, and birthdays). Have on unified set of information; no more outdated information!

Tidbits; you can share tidbits from your day using your phone or computer. Whether it’s a food pic or a new sight you enjoyed, what you’re doing that very moment, or even a random thought, tidbits enables users to share bits of life with the family so you can grow closer, no matter how geographically far apart. You can even setup daily text and/or email reminders.

Family Branches; the FamilyLeaf app is both safe and secure for you and your family. FamilyLeaf lets you create multiple family branches and only share certain info with certain branches (ex: different sides of the family).

Views on Posts; with the FamilyLeaf app you can easily see which of your family members have logged on and viewed your posts!

FamilyLeaf is already in use by people in over 100 countries and will soon be available in multiple languages! If you’re ready to try a more intimate social network, learn more or to try the FamilyLead app [via]

The Rounds Video Chat App, standalone for iPhone and Android, is finally here! Previously only available on Facebook, you can now download Rounds –for FREE!

Back in June we wrote about Rounds, formerly a Facebook-only phenomenon that had raised raised a total of $5.5 million in funding from industry leading investors, including Verizon Ventures, Rhodium, DFJ’s Tim Draper, and other private investors to become a Rounds standalone app. The capital was going to turn Rounds into a a standalone app; but no ETA had been announced. Today the company quietly launched the Rounds video chat app as a standalone app available on iPhone and Android –I couldn’t be any more excited!

Rounds is the first ever “Mobile Hangout Network.” Users can hang out and share media while video chatting with their mobile contacts and Facebook friends — including watching YouTube videos together; switching between five unique view modes, even adding crazy video effects; uploading photos to view together; taking snapshots, sharing moments and even use your phone’s touchscreen to scribble over each other’s live video streams and photos with a virtual marker.

With the Rounds video chat app, Rounds is able to combine online entertainment with video communication (“communitainment”) to bring friends and like-minded people closer together for a fun, live experience across social networks, operating systems and devices. Bridging the offline and online worlds, Rounds uses shared activities, games and video to give friends the feeling of ‘hanging out’ in real life. An interactive stream of friends’ and featured users’ “captured moments” from live sessions gives hangouts an afterlife, creating a new social network around them.

Use the Rounds video chat hangout to connect with your family and friends. Here’s how it works:

Use fun webcam effects and take funny photobooth snapshots with different video effects

Take photo booth snapshots of you and your friends while you are video calling

Scribble on your friends video images. Draw something funny and take a photo snapshot together

5 different view modes. Use the transparent view mode to take a snapshot as if you are in the same room

The team behind Rounds is a Tel Aviv Company (learn about Technology in Israel). Their executive Vice President, Oren Levy explained: “Rounds is a hangout platform, and our mission is to take the experience of hanging out in the real world and bring it to the online world.” He adds that the apps main aim is to make for a fun environment. And fun it is: Rounds for Facebook had an estimated user base of one million users per day with most users averaging about 40 minutes on the app!

Visit Rounds to download Rounds video chat app mobile, now available for iPhone and Android for FREE!